Pumping draws arsenic toward a big-city aquifer

September 11, 2013

Naturally occurring arsenic pollutes wells across the world, especially in South and Southeast Asia, where an estimated 100 million people are exposed to dangerous levels. Now, scientists working in Vietnam have shown that massive pumping of groundwater from a clean aquifer is slowly but surely drawing the poison into the water from a nearby polluted one. The study, done near Hanoi, confirms suspicions that booming water usage could eventually threaten millions more people across Asia.
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SourceThe Earth Institute at Columbia University

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